Kory headed to the fitness center. I worked on my blog post (as good an excuse as any to not work out on vacation).
We weren't due into Napier until noon, so we took our time getting ready and got our breakfast buffet food. We ate outside and it was perfect out... 70 degrees and sunny. Then we wandered the ship for a bit and watched from our balcony as we slowly approached and docked at Napier port.
Napier port is an industrial port so they make you get immediately on a shuttle bus and drive to the city center which is about four minutes away. Napier was destroyed by an earthquake and fires created by the earthquake in 1931. They rebuilt in Art Deco style and it is so cool! Kory said it reminded him of a cross between Disney's Hollywood studios theme park and Nice, France. It was a beautiful city, I could live here.
We wandered the main shopping district for a half hour and then met up with our guide Craig to head out in his vintage VW van to Hawkes Bay wine country. We were on the tour with two other people from the cruise, Marla and Colleen. They were from Texas and a delight. We had such a fun afternoon with them. Our guide Craig was a character. He started out giving us facts and figures and showing us points of interests, but then veered off into talking about anything and everything about him, us, America, New Zealand.
Random factoids:
During the earthquake, 40 meters of land was gained from prior water/ocean area from the land pushing up out of the water. That is where their current beach is. The beach front is all black sand, branches and other nature remnants. Not a beach for swimming.
Income tax is about 17% for people and 27% for businesses. There is a 15% GST tax on just about everything they buy (Goods and Services, similar to Sales Tax). There aren't property taxes per say, just fees sort of like condo fees for trash removal and similar services. The average Napier house costs $850,000 NZD or about $500,000 USD. This is about 75% of what the average cost is in Auckland.
Fruit growing and export is the #1 industry here. They call what they grow "stone fruit", anything with a pit. Cherries, nectarines, and most popular, apples. 20 apple varieties and most are exported to Asian countries. They like their apples small and completely red, so that is how New Zealand grows them.
New Zealand used to have about 68 million sheep in the 1970s, but then demand dropped due to the development of cotton, so there are only about 28 million sheep now. We were expecting to see more sheep. They are around, but nothing compared to cattle and farming operations.
We stopped at two vineyards for tastings. Craig told us there are approximately 70 vineyards in the Hawkes Bay region, but most are closed on Mondays and that is when we were visiting.
The first vineyard was Askerne. They are unique as they grow 17 different grape varieties. It is a family business. The parents make the wine and the three daughters help out in production and run the tasting room. The one doing our tasting was very nice. We tried eight different red wines. I liked most of them, except for the last one, the dessert red. Too sweet! We also had a cheese tasting board with all area products. My favorite thing was cumin infused danbo cheese, a dutch style cheese that was really tasty and made by a farm that is for people with developmental disabilites to live an learn. There was also rubarb jam, fig spread, thin wafer crackers and olives. The olives were grown at the farm accross the street. We had a very nice, leisurly time tasting and snacking. Marla even bought a bottle of her favorite, the "Dr. John's red blend" to take back to the ship.
From Askerne we headed to Brookfields vineyard. It was a roundabout route as there were still bridges and roads being replaced from a cyclone that hit two years ago. The place was definitely closed, but Craig talked a cranky old guy into giving us a quick tasting. We also got to see the harvest in progress. I have never seen this before. I don't know what I was expecting but they have a big tractor thing that shakes the vines so violently and gets the grapes to come off. In the areas the harvester doesn't fit, there were people handpicking.
The wines at Brookfields were amazing. They had a Malbec that was my favorite of the trip so far. They sun dried the grapes and said it is the only wine in New Zealand that goes through the additional trouble and process of sun drying. We would have bought some if we weren't hurried out of there.
From there we headed back to the city and walked around Napier's downtown with cute little shops for a bit. They definitely love their art deco heritage and dressed up in period cloths at many places.
When we got off the shuttle at the dock there were vintage cars lined up and "The Twin City Stompers" playing big band music. It was such a nice touch and when we got back to our room we opened our door and listened for an hour. It was like our own private concert.
All in all, a great day in Napier... Again, I could live here. Friendly people, great architecture, lots of cute local shops, restaurants and bars downtown and endless vineyards a short drive away.
Back on the ship we headed to the Spinaker Lounge to watch our sailaway. We wrote some post cards and played a game of cribbage. (And had a couple drinks of course.)
They had a funny activity when we were in there where people had to do silly tasks in 55 seconds. Keep balloons in the air, flip cup, ping pong shuffle between the legs, etc. Old people doing these activities made me giggle even more.
There was also an odd single guy who came and sat at the bar and wanted to see "the Indonesians" (who were bartending) because he wanted to show them the traditional batik shirt he was wearing. Eventually someone came who told him how beautiful his shirt was, but it was so cringy. It is things like this that give American's a bad name. What, exactly, was this awkward guy hoping to gain or accomplish from this awkward exercise?
Anyways, we had a late 8:30pm dinner reservation at Cagney's, the steakhouse on board. It was everything I hoped it would be... delicious bread, shrimp cocktail, salad, and of course, filet. I had it was some fantastic togarashi butter, which might be my favorite seasoning of the year so far... I am going to be making this at home!
Stuffed and past our bedtime, we headed back to the room for bed at about 10:30... Mission accomplished, I stayed up past 9!!!
Funny sign:
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